


Chris Chow: ‘Swawesome Secret Baker

by lbswasp



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Chowder has a secret, Gen, the secret is cake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 16:24:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15710919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lbswasp/pseuds/lbswasp
Summary: Christopher Franklin Chow had a secret.He liked baking shows.And with Bitty sad that Jack couldn't be at Samwell for Bitty's birthday, Chowder thought this was the perfect time to translate his skills at watching baking shows into actually baking.He could do this.(...he could not do this).





	Chris Chow: ‘Swawesome Secret Baker

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenThayet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenThayet/gifts).



> Not actually linked to my Chris Chow: 'Swawesome Emergency Goalie fic, I just decided to use a similar title.
> 
> Set sometime in Bitty's junior year. I know that Bitty has a canon birthday but I think I fudged it. If you spot any glaring errors, please let me know in comments!

Christopher Franklin Chow had a secret. It wasn’t a bad secret, he wasn’t even _that_ ashamed of it (he’d heard Shitty rant about gender norms and living your best self enough times to know that shame was a social construct and a waste of energy), but still. It was a secret. 

He liked baking shows.

Really liked them.

When he’d gone to visit Farmer over summer her Abuela had been laid up with a broken leg and Chowder had wound up sitting with her a lot because she couldn’t move very much and Caitlin’s younger siblings kept running around and Abuela was always watching them with a wistful look on her face so Chowder sat with her to keep her company, okay?

And Abuela liked cooking shows. Particularly baking shows.

By the end of his visit, Chowder and Abuela had worked through an entire season of Great British Bake Off together. And the Great Canadian Baking Show (almost as good). Plus Zumbo’s Just Desserts (Abuela had a thing for tall bald Australians). 

Back at Samwell, Chowder had kept watching. He was kinda hooked by now. He branched out into shows like Nailed It and Sugar Rush, as well as Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss. 

(He might have actually called Abuela one day and they’d watched an episode of Sugar Rush together, marvelling at the amazing things the contestants could do. They now had a semi-scheduled weekly baking show catch up time. Farmer thought it was adorable).

Then Chowder started looking into the baking parts of YouTube.

He found Bitty’s vlog.

Chowder marathoned Bitty’s entire vlog in one weekend, barely moving from his cocoon of blankets, marvelling at how itty bitty young Bitty had been and being impressed that Bitty knew so much about baking (Chowder knew this already from all the food Bitty had made them but it was one thing to eat the delicious results and another thing to _see_ Bitty moving confidently around the kitchen and chatting the entire time) and by the end of it Chowder definitely had an Opinion on the jam versus jelly debate (he was siding with Bitty on that one).

He became even more diligent about locking the door to his room and clearing his browser history. He loved his team, but he didn’t trust them not to snoop. Especially not Ransom and Holster. They were notorious for being able to find anyone’s porn stash within 30 minutes of that person moving into the Haus, and Chowder didn’t want to know how long it would take them to find out his secret baking show addiction.

He’d tried to see if Bitty wanted to watch them with him, but with being a junior and dating Jack, Bitty didn’t have a lot of time.

So Chowder watched on his own, and he learned. He learned that you should always grease your pan, always check your cake before pulling it out of the oven, and always let it cool completely before applying buttercream. 

Chowder knew a lot about baking, but he’d never put any of it into practice. With Bitty in the kitchen, why would he ever need to? The kitchen was Bitty’s space, the couch was Chowder’s. Chowder didn’t want to mess that up.

Bitty might take away the couch as revenge.

But Chowder wanted to try baking something. And Bitty was sad, because he had a test on his birthday and Jack was on roadie and couldn’t be with him.

Chowder would make Bitty a birthday cake. He was clever; he’d done his research. 

He could do this.

* * *

He could not do this.

Chowder slid down the cabinet until he was sitting on the floor, covered in powdered sugar. 

He’d tried so hard! He’d planned!

He’d decided to go with a box mix for the cake. It was his first cake, and he knew those things were pretty idiot-proof. He wasn’t going to try and bake a cake that would look like the Georgia state flag when cut open, or a dizzying multi-layered confection that would tower over everything. He wasn’t even going to try and do any fancy icing.

It was going to be a simple vanilla cake, topped with peach flavoured frosting. Nice and easy.

The second the door closed behind Bitty, Chowder had gotten to work, carefully following the instructions on the back of the box. He’d gotten the cake into the oven (after greasing his cake pan with butter, as all of the shows had told him to do) and kept a close eye on it by doing his stretches on the floor in front of the oven.

(Whiskey and Tango hadn’t know quite what to think when they’d walked into the Haus kitchen to find their starting goalie doing the splits while having a staring contest with the oven. They’d looked at each other, mouthed “goalies”, shrugged and walked away)

He’d tested the cake with a sharp knife to make sure it was properly cooked, and once he’d extracted it from the pan he’d put it in the fridge to cool.

This had involved emptying two shelves of the fridge so he could fit the cake in, but he was sure no one would mind. 

It was mostly beer, anyway.

The cake had been easy. The frosting? Not so much.

Chowder knew from Bitty’s vlogs that the frosting that came with cake mix was seriously rank. So he decided to make his own.

Peach flavored, since it was for Bitty and he was from Georgia and peaches were from Georgia and because Chowder couldn’t afford actual Georgia peaches he used peach flavoring and hopefully Bitty would understand.

He’d been so buoyed by his success with the cake that he’d gotten a little over excited with the powdered sugar and now...the whole kitchen was covered in it.

He was covered in it.

He couldn’t see himself, but Chowder was fairly sure that if anyone walked in to the Haus kitchen right now, they’d think they’d seen a ghost.

“Woah. Dude.”

“I didn’t know the Haus had a third ghost.”

“Do not joke about that!” cried Ransom. “Jenny and Mandy don’t need any ideas!”

With a sudden cold gust of wind in the room, Ransom’s hat flipped off his head and landed smack in the middle of the biggest pile of powdered sugar there was. He bent over to pick it up and tried to brush the powdered sugar off it, as Holster crouched down beside their goalie.

“Chowder, what’s going on brah?”

Chowder explained his plan, and all the joking left Ransom and Holster’s faces.

“Brah.”

“That’s like, as sweet as fuck.”

“But I’ve ruined it all! I don’t have any more powdered sugar! And Bitty’s test is nearly over!”

Chowder had very cleverly asked Bitty many questions about his test and when it would be over. Chowder was sure Bitty didn’t suspect a thing.

“Right.”

“Holster?”

“Our fellow Wellie is in need, brah. We can’t let him suffer alone.”

“Brah.”

“This is what we’ll do…”

* * *

“No, but like, if you think about it, mathematics is beautiful.”

“Mr. Oluransi, mathematics is not beautiful. Mathematics was put on this earth to make me personally suffer.”

“But...maths is the same in every language, eh?”

“Do _not_ try and quote Mean Girls at me to try and sway me to your side, mister! Nor use your Canadian whiles to try and eh your way outta this. Mathematics was created by the devil solely to vex me, and I will not hear another word about the subject. Not on my birthday.”

Bitty nodded to himself, then took a sip of his second Pumpkin Spice Latte. Ransom had bumped into him after his test and dragged him to Annie’s for a “birthday treat”, which apparently included buying Bitty an extra Pumpkin Spice Latte “for luck” and walking back to the Haus the long way ‘round.

Honestly, if he didn’t know any better, he’d think Ransom was trying to get him alone to confess something. But no, it just seemed like his friend wanted to enjoy the warm weather in his last semester before graduation, and Bitty was happy to spend the time with him.

He didn’t imagine he’d see Ransom much once he and Holster started the corporate grind in the fall, so he decided to treasure the time with his friend while he still had it.

Though he was sure he’d still see his friends as much as possible in the future. They were his boys, after all, and Bitty still didn’t know what he wanted to do after graduation.

The soft blip of a Snapchat notification had Ransom pulling out his phone

Ransom grinned, then pulled Bitty into his side. “Speaking of your birthday, Bitty-brah, there’s a surprise for you back at the Haus.”

“Justin Oluransi, what did you boys do this time?”

“To be honest, Bits, all I’ve done is keep you out of the Haus until ordered to bring you back. I don’t actually know what’s happening.”

Bitty looked suspiciously at Ransom, but let his friend hurry him along to the Haus without comment.

When they got there, Bitty noted that the Haus smelled...different from when he’d left this morning. Sweeter.

The kind of sweet only baked goods provided.

But he’d been out of the Haus all morning. And he was the only one who knew how to bake, right?

Apparently today, he wasn’t the only team-member who baked, as he was led by a beaming Holster into the kitchen, where the majority of the team was gathered around the table with a carefully iced cake proudly bearing a “21” candle.

“Y’all.” It was all Bitty was able to get out before his throat choked up. “Y’all.”

Ransom ruffled his hair before leading the team into a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday, at the end handing Bitty a knife to cut the cake.

Bitty blew out the candle and cut into the cake, admiring it’s texture.

The soft peach-coloured frosting was a good thickness — not so much that there was more frosting than cake on each slice, but not so little that you were left wanting more. The cake itself looked to be moist, and when he lifted a bite to his lips he found that yes, it was delicious.

A soft, delicious vanilla cake, with delicate peach icing. 

“Y’all,” he said again. “This is ridiculously good. Thank you so much! I didn’t expect a cake — I just thought we were having a kegster tonight.”

“We are most definitely having a kegster tonight Bits, but Chowder wanted to make you a cake first,” explained Holster.

“Chowder?”

“He made the whole thing. We just helped at the end. I brought the candle. Ransom kept you out of the Haus while Chowder finished it off.”

Bitty looked at the sea of hockey players around the table but couldn’t see their goalie. Eventually, Chowder was found at the back of the group and shoved forward.

Chowder looked worried, but Bitty just folded him into a hug. “Thank you, Chowder. I love it. I didn’t know you could bake!”

For once, the most excitable goalie Samwell had ever seen had nothing to say, as he squirmed under Bitty’s praise.

* * *

Bitty’s 21st went down in Samwell Hockey history. Not only was there a surprise cake, but the kegster that night went off with everyone who knew Bitty crowding into the house to wish him a happy 21st (with how friendly Bitty was, basically everyone on campus knew Bitty, so almost everyone on campus was there. Including half of the American studies professors. Those guys knew how to drink).

The Haus was already raging when the Providence Falconers arrived — a burst pipe at the Schooners’ arena meant their game had been cancelled and they were able to fly home early. Tater had seen Bitty’s excited instagram post about Chowder’s cake and had demanded that the entire team come visit “for cake made for itty Bitty! It will be best cake!”

There wasn’t much cake left by the time the Falconers arrived, but Tater had long arms and was very determined.

“Bitty makes best pie, but you, little goalie, you make best cake!”

Once again, the most excitable goalie in Samwell history was struck dumb, as an entire NHL team piled on him and declared that his cake was the best they’d ever had.

Bitty was keeping a close eye on his sweet goalie child, and noticed when Chowder extracted himself from the party and retreated to the kitchen.

Silently he followed and watched as Chowder patted the oven and whispered something to it.

* * *

Chowder knew if he spoke quietly enough, no one would be able to hear him talking to the oven over the noise of the party.

“Good oven,” he said, gently patting it. “Maybe next time, we could try something a bit more complicated, yeah?”

**Author's Note:**

> Congratulations Dr. QT, PhD! Chowder would definitely make you a cake if he was real.


End file.
